The famous Lycurgus Cup is one of the ancient uses of nanotechnology in human history. While the creators of the cup knew the reason for the wonderful optical properties of the cups, it is not clear, modern science has shown how sophisticated the technology behind its creation was.

Here are some interesting facts about this fascinating piece of human history.

Related: Pythagorean Cup The cup that your drinks spend when you get a lot of grid.

So, without further ado, here are some interesting facts about the famous Roman Lycurgus Cup. This list is not exhaustive and not in any particular order.

2/3. He is attacking the vines with an ax, so Im assuming he is a legend of Dionysus and King Lucargus. Musee Gallo Roman, France. Photo Steven Kocking Kings #romanmosaic pic.twitter.com/PUXSd5N6JG

Romanmosike Workshops (@ Romanmosox) September 19, 2018

The cup gets its name from the fact that it contains scenes representing the death of King Lycurgus. In at least one version of Greek and Roman mythology, King Lycurgus tried to kill Ambrosia a follower of the god Dionysus (butchers for the Romans).

According to this version of the legend, the gods turned Ambrosia into wine (properly) who tied the king around and put him to death. Dionysus also criticizes the doomed king by two followers over relief in the cup.

Nonetheless, it should be noted that other versions describe King Lucargus being mad at Dionysus for his attempt to cut grapes.

The Lycurgus Cup represents one of the great achievements of the ancient glass industry. The Openwork Decoration of the Cup includes a mythical freeze featuring the legend of King Lycurgus from Homers Iliads sixth book. pic.twitter.com/P0dH0sKkFs

Tikia Verveer (@ticiaverveer) December 19, 2017

Lycurgus Cup is not only an amazing thing, but it is also invaluable. While it is made of precious materials, including silver and gold, the cup is simply irreplaceable as a human artifact.

The edge of the cup is attached to a silver-gilt band of leaf ornament, and it also has silver-gilt legs with open-work vines. It is believed to be around the 4th century AD.

The Lycurgus Cup is the only perfect example of the color-changing dichroic glass of ancient Rome.

Glass has gold and silver nano Particles it turns from opaque green to translucent red when light is lit from it https://t.co/5nKrGE6Gc1 pic.twitter.com/A3jMa5z27I

British Museum (@ BritishMuseum) March 26, 2019

Perhaps the most notable thing about the Lucargas Cup is its nano-materialistic properties. When inspected under direct light, the cup appears green.

However, when inside the backlight or cup, those key reliefs magically change the color to red. The image of the king himself becomes a subtle purple too.

While it is unclear whether the Romans knew, it would take until the 1990s to find out exactly why scientists are right.

It was found that dichroism (two colors) is observed due to the presence of nanoparticles, silver. 66.2%, 31.2% Gold, and 2.6% Copper, till 100 NM Sized in glass matrix, in size.

The red color observed is the result of the absorption of light (20520 NM) By particles of gold. Absorption by large particles results in a purple color, while green is attributed to light scattering by silver particle reserves with size. > 40 NMGeneral Chat Chat Lounge

The Lycurgus Cup is recognized as one of the most ancient synthetic nanocomposites. - Marcio Luce et al 2015.

The glass of the fourth-century Liquorugas Cup is dichroic, in direct light it looks like a jade with an opaque greenish-yellow tone, but when the light from the glass shines, it turns into a translucent ruby color. From Homers Iliad Peaks 6th Book shows the legend of King Lucargus. Pic.twitter.com/3PzcNkYKP8

Tikia Verveer (@ticiaverveer) March 16, 2018

Following the above research, it was found that the incorporation of glass nanoparticles was added purposefully rather than by accident. The creators of these amazing forties appeared to know exactly what they were doing.

The inclusion of gold and silver was intended to be very small (below) (50 to 100 nm) Before adding it to the glass.

1) During my Steve Jobs during Reed College I did a course with the gang Logan Liu, you can try out his light.

Basically, Nano is an old technology. http://t.co/wiInOw63Af

Angelina Zarkova (@Angelina) January 7, 2020

While that precious object cannot be tested on the object itself, researchers believe that the color of the cups may change further depending on the type of fluid it pours into. This they believe will help provide some interesting diagnostic techniques for scientists.

In fact, home pregnancy tests work using the same phenomenon, despite having similar nano-sized ingredients.

They made a plastic plate sheet with billions of small wells about the size of a postage stamp. These were sprayed with gold or silver nanoparticles, which, in a way, produced numerous miniature Liquorgas cups.

When water, oil, sugar and salt solutions were poured into these wells, each showed a different color. For example, water produced a light-green color, oil red.

According to research, this proved to be all around 100 times More sensitive to varying levels of salt in solution than commercially available sensors.

A comparison between the original Lycurgus Cup and the printed de-printed Ag / Au @ PVA Nanocomposite Cup, presented by this research using LED illumination published as a light source, Source: Lars Cool et al.

Researchers in the Netherlands have recently been able to reproduce the green / red dichroic properties of the Lycurgus Cup using 3D printing techniques. They were able to present silver and gold nanoparticles of the right size and shape and embed them in 3D printable form.

Baron Lionel Nathan von Rothschild, Source: Allison / Wikimedia Kings

Given the spectacular state of the object, it is widely believed that the Lucargas Cup has spent much of the intermediate years from the ground up. This would mean that, like many other ancient Roman objects, a church was kept in the treasury, or was stolen from the tomb early in its history.

While we can never fully trace the history of the object, it is known that the cup was occupied by a Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothchild in the mid-1800s. It was then donated to the British Museum in 1958, which has since kept it safe.

The cup is displayed to the public, from time to time. It was last on display, between 2012-2013, according to the British Museum.

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7 Scintillating Facts About the Earliest Known Use of Nanotechnology: The Lycurgus Cup - Smash Newz